Originally Posted by rholland1951

Thanks! I've come across the Blalock route once or twice while Googling instead of riding, and was intrigued, but haven't had the nerve (read: haven't gotten an early enough start some Summer Saturday morning with the necessary Friday planning and preparations) to do the round-trip ride. The idea of a one-way is intriguing, especially now that the days are shorter. Beyond that, I'm always curious about good routes across Route 9 and I-90...

Re: shoes. I have a similar problem. When I switched away from SPD pedals and started using big platforms (MKS-Lambda, VP-001), a few years back, I experimented with shoes and found that the ones with the highest coefficient of sliding friction provided the best foot retention on the nubbly pedals; in addition, running shoes tended to have built up heels that limited my foot positions on the platforms, rubbing the crank arms. I settled on five.ten Impact IIs, damn near perfect shoes for Fall, Winter, and Spring rides of any distance, except for one thing: they were too narrow, and my feet hurt after a long ride. Nevertheless, I kept using them, trying a shoe stretcher (helped some), sizing up (helped some too), and so forth. Meanwhile, I found shoes for Summer riding (New Balance MX-20 Minimus) that had both the grippy soles I needed and a last and width that suited my feet. Problem is, I know they won't cut it in 20degF. So the experimentation continues. Five.ten sells sheets of their "stealth rubber" sole material, and I may try having a cobbler retrofit an old set of New Balance hiking boots with that for a sole. We'll see... Meantime, best of luck with your shoe search.

rod